TELLTALES 24 (Apr. 16, 2008)

· Only four of the six VYBA sailors who signed up appeared at the Clark Mills Regatta/Florida Optimist Championships in Clearwater last weekend. This is unsatisfactory. We realize this event was a late addition to our schedule and we understand sickness and emergencies, but in the future, please do not sign up unless you seriously intend to attend. We have to make them cost effective. Since we had six scheduled to go, we did not have sailing in Venice and several sailors missed out on some time on the water, even if we would have had only optional sailing.

· Congratulations go to Stephan VerHulst who came in 19th out of 46 Green fleeters at Clearwater. Aubrey Khachetoorian finished 30th. In RWB competition, Cara Patete was 47th and Tyler Thorpe was 81st out of 95 competitors. Strong winds curtailed some of the action. On Sunday, the RWB fleet shifted its course from the gulf to the bay and the Green Fleet cancelled racing.

· This coming Saturday, Apr. 19, will be regular sailing. Bryan White will be working with the RWB group since John Thomas will be attending a Laser regatta and Jabbo Gordon will be teaching a sailing counselor course in West Palm Beach. Robert Berg will coach the Green Fleet as usual. By the way, we still need those Green Fleet series scores from Mar. 29 for the spring series.

· The David Swett Memorial Regatta, which is for VYBA sailors only, will be Saturday, Apr. 26. A notice of race will be included in next week’s “Tell Tales” but basically, it is an all day regatta.

· Captain John Thomas, VYBA president and RWB coach, has made arrangements for his charges to crew on the C&C 36 “Summertime” for the Venice Sailing Squadron’s regular monthly regatta on Saturday, May 3. This is a day-long event, so bring your lunch. There won’t be any room for half-day sailors because this is offshore racing in the gulf. VYBA thanks John Lynch, the boat’s owner, for making this opportunity available to our sailors. It will be a great experience. Green Fleet will sail in the morning and the Portsmouth Division will sail in the afternoon as usual.

· Only one more out-of-town regatta is on the VYBA schedule and that is the School’s Out Regatta at Tampa’s Davis Island Yacht Club, same site as the annual Thanksgiving Regatta, on May 24-25. A sign-up sheet is posted in the Pram Shed, and the deadline is May 10. So, make plans now.

· We are looking for some volunteers who would like to hand out some literature and answer any questions about our program at some shopping centers where we hope to rig an Opti to promote our summer program. As of today, we have only 22 registrants and we need 100.

· Speaking of the summer program, we have four interested in the 420 class (Alicia Muscato, Andrew Sosa, Stephan Johnson and Paul Kreider) June 2-13 and four who want to do the special Optimist session (Alicia, Stefan, Garrett Lawlor and Ashlyn Weed) on June 16-30. But we can take more sailors in both groups. Please let Jabbo know if you want to do this.

· Eagle eye Emily Rom caught a mistake we made in the last “Tell Tales” when we said Joe Garlick had graduated from Lemon Bay. He actually was graduated from Venice High. Sorry about that.

· When any sailor has to change boats because his or her boat needs repair, please try to use the same blades and sail that go with the temporary replacement. That eliminates some confusion which happens when blades, for example, are matched with the wrong boat. Furthermore, some rudders do not fit all boats. Of course, we realize some blades need repair also.

· Sailing tip: Make sure you have your PFD, watch, water and bailer BEFORE you leave the dock.